The primary inspiration for most of this product line lies
with the Vidyadhara, Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche. Although I was a
competent and experienced professional seamstress when I met him in 1974,
he encouraged me to use my talent and skill to reproduce traditional Tibetan
practice materials. I worked with him and with His Holiness, the Sixteenth
Gyalwa Karmapa, until their deaths, and have continued to develop these
products for the Shambhala Community, and Sakyong, Mipham Rinpoche, since
then. I now offer them to you for the enhancement of your personal practice.

Although many of the individual products are traditional
(béré, chevrons, chöppön cloths, to name a few),
several have been developed in response to demands of Western lay practitioners
to accommodate particular
liturgies, home shrines and developing Buddhist and Shambhala traditions,
like Childrens Day. The Sadhana
(pecha) Covers, as well as the Commentary Covers fit
practice books printed for the Shambhala sangha.
The Zen Cover was designed to fit the Daily Sutras used by
Eido Roshis students, and the Double Book Wrap
came into being for small liturgies produced for students of Chokyi Nyima,
Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsultrim
Gyamtso, Rinpoche.

If you do not see what you need for your practice, consider
contacting me about a possible design  especially
if there are others in your sangha with similar needs. Investing in appropriate
and beautiful practice materials
is a luxury you will not regret.

Many of the traditional items I make and offer here are
also made in India and Nepal, and imported to Europe and North America.
You can certainly find similar practice materials for less. But you will
not find better quality.

The Dream Flag

In the early summer of 1980, while His Holiness, the
16th Gyalwa
Karmapa was visiting Boulder, Colorado, I had the good fortune to
be his personal seamstress. One morning he called me into his sitting
room at Marpa House and showed me three small coloured pencil
sketches of a flag. He told me (through a translator) that he had
dreamed that wherever this flag was flown, the Dharma would
flourish.
He asked me to make one.

I sketched out on graph paper what I thought
represented the complete
symmetry of his drawings and confirmed my representation with him
before proceeding to enlarge my pattern to accommodate a full-size
flag.
The first Dream Flag was raised on Midsummers Day. The Dharma
has
been flourishing ever since.